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Show BLAST KILLS 500 INTEXASSCH00L Search Debris for Mangled Bodies of Children, Dead and Dying. New London, Tex. Workers Work-ers are still searching the wreckage of the London Consolidated Con-solidated school for more bodies to be added to the toll of the worst school disaster in the world's history. Hundreds of students were literally blown to bits in a gas explosion which demolished demol-ished the richest rural school in America ten minutes before be-fore the boys and girls would have been dismissed for the day. Estimates placed the total dead at about 500. Gov. James V. Allred immediately declared martial law, and sent all state highway patrolmen to the scene, which is 12 miles north of here. National Guard troops were ordered out as the entire populace of the neighborhood thronged about the school hysterically waiting for the bodies of their loved ones to be dragged forth. President Roosevelt promised every aid from the federal fed-eral government. At the time of the mighty blast fifty or more mothers were attending attend-ing a Parent-Teacher association meeting in the school gymnasium, a separate building several hundred feet away from the main structure. Hearing the rumble of the blast, they rushed to the windows in time to see a hail of debris flying through the air and the big building collapsing collaps-ing upon their children. Mothers Race to Aid. Screaming hysterically, the mothers moth-ers raced across the campus and with their bare hands clawed at the debris trying desperately t o reach the children whose cries could be heard from beneath the crumbled structure. Nearby oil fields, some of which could be seen from the school grounds, shut down and frantic workers rushed in to try to rescue those who still remained alive. The terrible force of the eruption erup-tion sent the mangled bodies of boys and girls flying through the air like they were rag dolls. Tha brick walls were blasted out. The roof raised in the air and then fell back on to the mass of crying and struggling strug-gling humanity. Bricks were hurled more than a quarter of a mile. Dismembered bodies lay all around on the school lawn. Some were decapitated. Others hal limbs missing. Some of the children still were alive. The scene quickly became one of extreme confusion. Hysterical women wom-en fainted, shrieked, and prayed, kneeling on the grass. Many parents, the women either screaming hysterically or silently sobbing, ran frantically from one body to another, seeking their loved ones. There were gasps of horror and occasionally a woman slumping slump-ing to the ground in a faint, indicating indicat-ing she had found what she had fearfully hoped she wouldn't. Mutilation of the bodies made their tragic task increasingly difficult. diffi-cult. One couple hovered over the form of a little boy, his face and body so mangled and bloody they couldn't be certain if he were their son. "Must Be Jim," Mother Cries. "O, it's Jim, it must be Jim," sobbed the woman. Picking up one of the little victim's feet, she argued ar-gued hysterically with her husband. hus-band. "See, it's his tennis shoes," she cried. "I remember he asked me to wear them to school this morning." "No, no," her husband replied, almost al-most happily. "Jim changed into his other shoes when he came home for lunch." "O, merciful God, he may still be alive then." the mother cried as they got up and hurried away to scan other little bodies. For a few minutes after the roof caved in, leaving jagged remnants of wall standing like the ruins of a medieval castle, flames shot out above the wreckage. But the build-tug build-tug was of fireproof construction nd the blaze, having almost nothing noth-ing to feed upon, soon died out It was well that it did, for nearby communities have only small fire fighting forces. t The narrow roads to the school, situated between the oil field com munities of London and New London, Lon-don, unincorporated hamlets, soon were clogged with a stream of vehicles. ve-hicles. More than 15,000 persons assembled assem-bled at the scene m the next few hours, either anxious over the fate of their relatives, to help in the rescue res-cue work, or sightseeing. Call Doctors and Nurses, Every available ambulance, doctor, doc-tor, and nurse in all surrounding towns were summoned by telephone and radio. As far away as from Shreveport, La., came doctors and nurses by airplane, sent by the American Red Cross. Thirty doctors and seventy-two nurses, twelve of them from the Red Cross, came from Dallas. Accompanying Ac-companying them were twelve ambulances, am-bulances, twenty-five embalmers, and five hearses. All sorts of vehicles laundry trucks, private cars, ambulances, and what not sped to the scene, and were used to carry the bodies away. But, with no one in authority author-ity and hundreds of persons wrought up to a frenzy, many of the cars soon were entangled in a hopeless snarl. Because of this situation. Governor Gover-nor Allred ordered all state highway high-way patrolmen on duty in the district dis-trict to hurry here and take command. com-mand. All available Texas Rangers and highway policemen also were being rushed there from Dallas, Houston, Austin and Tyler. Fingerprint experts ex-perts were sent from Austin on the possibility they might assist in identifying iden-tifying the bodies, many Texas school children having been finger printed. Find Few Survivors. Five hundred workers from the oil fields arrived at the wrecked building build-ing soon after the explosion and leaped into the ruins. But there were few survivors for them to rescue, res-cue, and their main work was carrying car-rying out bodies. ' Later an additional 1,000 men went to work on the debris. In the early stages they passed up the bodies of those obviously dead in the hope of finding those in whom there might be life. Three hundred and sixty bodies were taken by ambulance, truck, and every possible conveyance to Henderson. Dozens of other bodies were taken to Kilgore, Overton, Ark, Troup, Longview, and Tyler. While waiting for the arrival of sufficient vehicles to move the great number of dead the bodies were carried car-ried from the wreckage and laid in long rows on the lawn. Mothers and fathers dragged the bodies of still more victims into the school gymnasium until the vehicles came back for more loads. There the children and their teachers lay, side by side, many of them unidentified. unidenti-fied. Few Injured Will Live. The superintendent, who saw the school disintegrate before his eyes, said that of the 770 odd children and teachers believed to have been in the building, not more than 100 escaped es-caped death. Many of the injured who were removed from beneath the tons of steel and concrete, he said, were so badly injured that they could not live. Most of the younger children, attending at-tending the nearby grammar school, had been dismissed before the disaster disas-ter occurred and were out of harm's way. Some were playing about the yard, however, and saw the school building collapse, Mrs. Evelyn Hooker, a welfare worker for Rusk county, in which the school is located, and a friend, Mrs. William C. Roberts, were driving driv-ing past the school at the time the explosion occurred. "I looked up," said Mrs. Hooker, "just in time to see the top of the building soddenly rise in the air. It seemed that the whole building moved up and the walls were flung out. A black pall of smoke appeared to hover over the building. Clothing Tom Off. "Then we saw the children. O, it was terrible. Some of the smaller ones, who must have been playing in the yard or were in the entrances of the building, ran into the streets. They were bleeding and crying horribly. hor-ribly. Their clothing had been torn off many of them." A. W. Waldrop, physical education educa-tion teacher at the school, was conducting con-ducting a class in physical education educa-tion on the grounds shortly before the blast. He left the class momentarily momen-tarily to enter the building. At that moment the explosion occurred. oc-curred. One of the first to reach the scene was R. K. Carr, an employee of the Tidewater Associated. He dashed into the wreckage and carried car-ried out the body of a little girl. It was his daughter. |